50 Page Fridays: Troy Denning

By awoodfolk on March 9, 2012

Every Friday, we here @ Del Rey Spectra will place a 50 page excerpt of a selected title on Suvudu. Whether it is science fiction, epic fantasy, alternate history, horror, urban fantasy, paranormal, the possibilities are endless.

This week’s excerpt comes from Star Wars: Fate of the Jedi: Apocalypse, an epic title for the epic conclusion to the Fate of the Jedi series. DRS Editor, Shelly Shapiro gives us some behind-the-scenes insight into how this book came to pass:

“When Troy Denning agreed to be a part of the Fate of the Jedi series, he was wary. He’d just written one of the most difficult books of his career: the final, climactic novel in the nine-book Star Wars: Legacy of the Force series—the book in which Jacen Solo dies at the hand of his own twin sister. He was even more wary when he learned that our intention was for him to write the final, climactic novel in this new series.

Truthfully, all of us involved had grown a little tired of darkness and sadness and wanted to see some breaks of sunlight in the Star Wars galaxy, so I assured him that we had a deal. All three authors put their hearts and souls into this new series, and Troy tells me that Apocalypse was the hardest book he’s ever written: Not only did he have to tie up all the story lines of another nine-book series, but he had to bring the whole thing to a conclusion that felt galaxy-shaking, triumphant, and…happy!

It was a tall order. He emailed me that the book was taking longer than he’d anticipated.

I waited.

He emailed again, saying it was taking even longer.

I waited again.

He emailed again, a message full of angst. He’d be even later delivering the manuscript and he hoped it would be worth the wait.

It was.

It’s hard to imagine a triumphant “apocalypse.” A book with a title like that has got to be dark and depressing, right? Guess again. Troy managed all the goals we’d set him and then some. ‘Nuff said. Now go read the first chunk of the book; I dare you to be able to stop there!”